Arbroath 1 PARS 1
SUPER SUB Craig Wighton may have given Athletic the gift of a last-gasp point at Arbroath but you couldn't blame his boss if he felt as though he wasn't in Santa's good books.
A campaign that has been beset by injury problems so far was hit by two more during what proved to be a dramatic contest full of incident at Gayfield, which ended all-square thanks to Wighton's stoppage time header.
His sixth goal of the season cancelled out an opener from Jay Bird, who went from hero to zero by receiving a red card in the latter stages after a bizarre bust-up with team-mate, Jermaine Hylton.
The two players weren't in festive cheer when they found themselves embroiled in an argument that saw both of them booked, with Bird receiving his second of the day, in an incident their manager - former Pars player and gaffer, Jim McIntyre - branded as "unprofessional".
Bird had given the Lichties the advantage in first half stoppage time, after visiting skipper, Chris Hamilton, had been subbed and taken to hospital with a cheekbone injury after colliding with the home goalscorer, who was yellow carded.
To add to Dunfermline's woe, Lewis McCann was also forced off before the interval with a hamstring injury, having pulled up when giving chase to a clearance upfield.
"Hammy’s doesn’t look great at all, it was his cheekbone. Their doctor, credit to him, he went on and said to get him off right away," McPake said.
"He is away to the hospital. I don’t know if it was a boot or a head knock but whatever it was, it was a sore one for him.
"Then we all saw Lewis pulling up, so that’s not great either. It’s his hamstring.
"We have done all this before. You look through the training and see do we do too much of something? Then Hammy comes off with a facial injury, and Lewis can sprint about forever, so there is obviously something there with his injury.
"The good thing is we should have (Sam) Fisher back for next week, (Kyle) Benedictus is really close. The squad is okay in terms of that but we are certainly picking up our fair share of injuries."
As for the game itself, McPake described his side's play as being "flat" and said "it looked all day that we could've played forever and not scored".
He credited his side for not giving up and getting their reward in the dying moments of a game which, until Bird's red card, looked like it might get away from them.
Arbroath were a much tougher proposition under McIntyre's charge than they had been little more than three weeks previously when, in their first game since Dick Campbell departed, they were comfortably beaten 3-0 at KDM Group East End Park.
Leighton McIntosh and Bird were constant threats to Dunfermline, who saw a neat finish from McCann chalked off for offside, and Matty Todd and Joe Chalmers have efforts from distance comfortably saved.
However, on the stroke of half-time, Arbroath took the lead when Thomas O'Brien's ball forward was won by Bird ahead of Ewan Otoo, and he advanced to the edge of the penalty area before sending a fine finish beyond Deniz Mehmet.
"It was a poor goal that we lost but, look, for me, it's a learning curve for Ewan Otoo," McPake said.
"The kid was outstanding last week as a left centre back, then he moves into the middle of the pitch, and it seems to be every time we put him in there, we lose a centre back and then he's going back there.
"It's a great learning curve for him because he's that strong that, sometimes, he wants to use that, but he needs to learn, going up levels as well.
"That boy's a handful when he's on it, so he needs to learn sometimes just to step off the game.
"Otherwise, I thought he was excellent. You talk about recovering from that, he then comes in and starts playing really well in the game."
Dunfermline created a superb opening 10 minutes into the second half when Michael O'Halloran played the ball infield to Moffat, who drove to the edge of the box.
He then found O'Halloran on the right, but he seemed to be caught in two minds to shoot or cross, with his driven ball flashing wide of the far post.
They should have levelled 11 minutes later when Aaron Comrie played a one-two with Jakubiak, and advanced to just outside the Lichties penalty area.
He elected not to shoot, instead finding Wighton, who laid it on for Moffat, whose side-footer hit the post, before Comrie sliced the follow-up wide.
Then, after going close with another quickfire couple of chances, Bird saw red, leaving the Pars with the task of trying to break their opponents down.
Wighton curled one over from inside the box but, just when it looked like it wouldn't be their day, he was on hand to head home from a Chalmers corner in stoppage time.
Dunfermline could even have won it, had Wighton connected better with Ben Summers' fine low cross, but McPake said: "It looked like we could've played forever and not scored if I'm honest. That was the way it was looking.
"I think we kept going, aided by the fact that they went down to 10 men. I think, for a while, that was the most exciting thing. I don't mean that in that way, but it was not so much a boring game, but there wasn't much going in it, certainly from a Dunfermline point of view.
"We just looked flat, if I'm honest. I don't know if the changes effected that, but that shouldn't.
"Everybody keeps saying, and we spoke about it through the week, Arbroath in December and the weather - it was a great day for football.
"The pitch is heavy but our pitch is heavy,every grass pitch you play on is heavy, so no excuses in terms of the flatness.
"We didn't deserve to win that game, we know that. We'd have loved to have gone on and won it, but credit to them. They kept going in the end."
Wighton, who scored a double when the Pars beat Arbroath last month, added: "I'm delighted to get the equaliser, get a goal. I probably could've had another one.
"We were pushing at the end, had a few chances, but it was tough for both teams I think with the conditions. It wasn't the greatest game to be honest."
Pars: Mehmet, Comrie, Otoo, Hamilton (Chalmers 25), Breen, Edwards, Allan (Summers 56), O'Halloran (Wighton 56), Todd, Moffat, McCann (Jakubiak 39).
Subs not used: Fenton, J. Sutherland, Sharp, Little.
Goal: Wighton (90).
Booked: Jakubiak (67).
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